Harry Kane has questioned the mentality of English fans after being subjected to ridicule on social media over the last few weeks.

Kane, arguably the country’s best player and certainly key to any chance England have at the World Cup this summer, has been the butt of jokes following his decision to appeal the awarding of a Tottenham goal at Stoke to Christian Eriksen.

He was then ridiculed by the FA Cup’s official Twitter feed, a Football Association competition, in the wake of Spurs’ semi-final defeat to Manchester United last week, with the post suggesting he was in Chris Smalling’s pocket.

Kane is not the only top England star to be derided, with his Spurs team-mate Dele Alli and Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling also regularly criticised, something the England man struggles to understand.

“It is strange, I think it is a mentality thing,” Kane said after scoring his 27th Premier League goal of the season in Spurs’ 2-0 win over Watford on Monday.

“It is easier these days to maybe banter England players or take the mick out of England players, if we don’t do well in the World Cup it’s, ‘Oh we told you so’.

“It’s maybe a weaker mentality, but it is what it is, as a team we are focused on what we need to do. We have got to go with a mindset and a belief that we can win, we try and win everything we do and the World Cup is no different.